Comparative ultrastructural and functional study of chloroplasts in Cichorium intybus L. cv. Chioggia and Treviso

Red chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) is an important and widespread winter crop in Northern Italy, including cultivations of the two cultivars, Chioggia Precoce and Treviso Precoce, on the East coast of Emilia Romagna. It belongs to the Asteraceae family and presents toothed leaves arranged in a rosette, though with a great morphological diversity based on the cultivar. Particularly, the leaves developing from voluminous compact heads may suggest the occurrence of morpho-functional specificities in the chloroplasts. To date, specific information regarding the variation of chloroplasts among different cultivars of chicory is lacking; therefore to obtain a comprehensive characterization, we combined ultrastructural and chlorophyll fluorimetric analyses of the abovementioned two cultivars.